Fighting Goliath - Texas Coal Wars
Robert Redford has narrated “Fighting Goliath - Texas Coal Wars,” a new 35 minute documentary about a coalition of mayors, ranchers, CEOs, community groups, legislators, lawyers, and citizens who come together to oppose the construction of 19 power plants that were slated to be built in Eastern and Central Texas. They were being fast-tracked by the Governor of Texas because of his belief that the state needed the energy in a hurry. During the course of the film, TXU, the energy company, was purchased, and offered to cut the number of plants. Unfortunately, the remaining plants would pollute more than all 19 of the originally planned facilities.
I received my review copy on Election Day 2008. I had just watched the 1987 film, “In the Company Hands,” about the history of company towns in the Southern WV coalfields. I watched the film immediately, and really enjoyed it. It was so Bama-esque to see the former mayor of Dallas, ranchers who admit on camera that they despised “tree huggers,” and many other political and corporate leaders work together to stop King Coal. It reminded me of another recent film I saw - “Coal Ties - Yellow Springs to Meigs” that deals with the same issue of the over-construction of coal-fired electricity plants. This film was much better made than “Coal Ties” technically, but had the same emotional punch, showing people on both sides of the energy wars that have plagued the US since the early 1970s. I wondered where T. Boone Pickens’ wind farm was - I know he built the world’s largest wind farm somewhere in Texas.
As I wrote in my review of “Coal Ties,” it was a relief to watch a film concerning coal that was NOT set in WV and Appalachia. Given that more than 50 % of US electricity is generated by coal, both this film and “Coal Ties” show that coal is more than an Appalachian problem. Since there have been proposals to build several more coal-fired plants in WV, people might enjoy seeing this side of King Coal as well as all the many anti-MTR films recently released.
If you would like to see this film, or better, show it, visit this page and check out the “Get Involved” section. At the bottom is their e-mail site to contact them about getting a copy of the film to show. coalwars@alpheusmedia.com
